Category Archives: Vegetarian

A vegetarian expo is to be held in Moscow’s Sokolniki on Nov. 1. Too bad I’ll be back home to Kandalaksha by then. Judging from theis site the event promises to be fun. I believe this is the first happening of this scale in Russia.

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Presentin a rare, remarkable, and not very usual for Russia phenomenon when a well-known and popular rock, ethno, and electronic music festival was held in a small depressed village with no real economy and no jobs, and when the happening was locally initiated.

The White Noise festival was held in the village of Chupa on the White Sea, at the north end of Karelia, 20 miles from the arctic circle (66°33), on the Medvezhka (bear) peninsula. Performers and guests came here from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Karelia, the Murmansk region, and other places. This year there were about 2000 of them living in tents all over the peninsula. The organizers set up several cafes (including a vegetarian one with Indian food), brought potable water, installed toilet facilities. Also a fire show, art shows and exhibitions, a performance by jugglers, a fair of hand-made products, sea canoe rides, tours of the coast on motor-boats and sailing yachts, and diving were part of the festival.

Held tomorrow, June 5 2014, in Murmansk, begins at 6pm by the “walrus house” (“дом моржей”), organized by Nature and Youth in connection to the World Environment Day (and the Day of the Ecologist in Russia).

Yestarday and today, May 31 and June 1, there was the 4th Internationa Festival of Indian Culture in Murmansk, organized by the Center of Vedic Culture (ul. Frolova 16), aka the Hare Krishna people, with the support of the Murmansk region Ministry of Arts and Culture.

Every year, about the middle of summer, a tent village pops up near the Chupa settlement. On the Medvezhka peninsula creative people, Russian and European musicians, get together. The format is rock, ethno, and several directions of electronic music. The event lasts for three days and three nights. The aim is the development and support of the northern culture. For the participants and visitors there will be a crafts fair, a field vegetarian kitchen, and a tea shack.

I keep seeing this slogan around Kandalaksha, which is the last place on earth you’d expect to meet a vetetarian, let alone a vegan, and certainly no a vegan actively promoting their views. Also these days writing on the wall can get you to prison. If of course this happens to be the wrong wall or fence. See the Evgeni Vitishko story as an example.. My memory just served two episodes of vegan travellers to Kandalaksha but I’ll leave these for later. See Categories > Vegetarian or do a search.

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“Vegetarian cheeseburger” and “vegetarian hot dog” have been noticed in snack bars of more sophisticated filling stations of Kandalaksha and Apatity. The difference fromt the real thing is that there is no burger in the hamburger and no weinie in the hot dog. Not a soya burger. Not an immitation something. Just nothing.

Here is an old Soviet “anekdot” on the subject:

Russian waitress to a foreign tourist, acting under instructions to create a proper impression: “What would sir like for breakfast?”
Client: “What are my options?”
Waitress: “Yes or No.”

Need an interpreter in Kandalaksha and area? Write to manfriday@yandex.ru or call +7 921 155 5432. More >>

Somewhere in Krasnoyarsk Kray, southern Siberia, near Minussinsk. The movement was prominent in the 90s, then subjected to a lot of harsh criticism in early 2000s, but for the last few years largely ingored by mass media.